AFP, Tokyo
Japanese star Naomi Osaka crashed out of the Tokyo Olympics tennis competition on Tuesday as Brazil’s Italo Ferreira and America’s Carissa Moore claimed the first-ever gold medals in surfing.
Osaka, who lit the Olympic cauldron in the opening ceremony, lost 6-1, 6-4 to Marketa Vondrousova after an error-strewn performance, ending her cherished dream of winning on home soil.
The 23-year-old -- one of the faces of the Tokyo Games -- had not played since May, when she walked out of the French Open saying media commitments were harming her mental health.
The second seed will be bitterly disappointed at missing out on a chance of Olympic gold, especially after the early exits of world number one Ashleigh Barty and third seed Aryna Sabalenka.
“How disappointed am I? I mean, I’m disappointed in every loss, but I feel like this one sucks more than the others,” said the four-time Grand Slam-winner.
Asked what went wrong, she replied: “Everything -- if you watch the match then you would probably see. I feel like there's a lot of things that I counted on that I couldn’t rely on today.”
In the men’s surfing competition Ferreira, who learned his trade standing on the foam box his father sold fish from, snapped his board on the first wave and had to wait in the sea for a replacement.
But he recovered to score 15.14 to Japanese opponent Kanoa Igarashi’s 6.60 at Tsurigasaki Beach, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Tokyo.
“It’s one of the best days of my life for sure,” said the Brazilian. “I was so nervous at the beginning but I just tried to surf and have fun because two months ago I was busy with training and thinking and dreaming and now I’ve got the gold medal.”
US surfer Carissa Moore beat South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag in the women’s final.
